Limited government need not erase a society’s distinctive moral character

Evidence

The very character of a society is uniquely determined by its moral commitments, and by these commitments it is defined. … The modalities of American constitutional argument do not depend upon a moral justification to legitimate limited government. A society need not lose its cultural character, therefore, when it places its government under law. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 92

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Bobbitt’s key claim that constitutional modalities are separable from moral justifications.
• XREF: connects to: Neither denunciation nor privatized acceptance can create a politics of mutual respect; The industrial revolution rendered Lockean political philosophy inadequate for modern problems — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2331; Even opposing government-responsibility stances presuppose the state is a distinct moral agent — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 177